


Mission "Collect Friends" is a go

by JoleneTheMoon



Series: Fast and Loose [5]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-14
Updated: 2018-04-22
Packaged: 2019-04-22 22:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,657
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14318616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoleneTheMoon/pseuds/JoleneTheMoon
Summary: With Sakura’s easy acquisition of Kiba, it only makes strategic sense to try for more.





	1. Stage One: Butterfly Wings

Sakura was used to being considered weird or strange. She’d even been called ‘freakish’ on occasion… She’d just never thought it was a good thing until _he_ said it.

“Weird is just another way to say something is unknown or alien to the speaker. Why do people call others weird? Because they are unable to explain something. You? You are not weird. Or at least not any weirder than members of the _Morpho_ genus of the _Lepidoptera_ order in the _Insecta_ class.”

Sakura had been in the middle of being mocked, as per her female classmate’s usual lunchtime habits, when _he_ had arrived.

He certainly looked cool and mysterious with that coat and dark sunglasses look. And the girls had positively _fled_ upon his arrival. It was _glorious_. Sakura wanted to do that, how cool would it be to have her enemies flee from her on sight? Plus, that was her mom’s ranking in both Mist’s and Iwa’s Bingo Books – so it was basically already on Sakura’s to do list.

“Who are you?” Sakura’s breathy gasp of wonder probably came across a little strong seeing as the boy sunk deeper into his high-collared coat until just the top of his sunglasses were visible before responding.

“Aburame Shino. And you are Haruno Sakura of class 4-A. How do I know that? Simple. I sit three rows back and two to the left from you.”

Sakura took a moment to think that through.

Okay, one – a boy (besides Kiba, who was basically a human disaster without Akamaru’s guidance) had noticed her, although this could be less notable due to her having pink hair

Two – this boy apparently maps out classrooms and names without effort (definitely a useful skill set to learn).

Three – he had just rescued her from the regularly scheduled bullying program (although Kiba’s older sister Hana had been making great progress with building up Sakura’s self-esteem, she still got down-trodden at school whenever Ami and her crew of absolute _terrors_ showed up – plus Kiba had a habit of constantly ditching school and leaving Sakura to suffer).

And four – she needed to look up what a _Morpho-Lepidoptera-Insecta_ was ASAP.

 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

He had compared her to a butterfly? What?! A particularly beautiful kind of butterfly to be fair… well if she overlooked the whole ‘females are brown, yellow, and boring whilst the males are a pretty reflective blue’ thing. But it looked like it was a good thing? Like maybe he was trying to compliment her?

Sakura needed to check with Hana and see if her developing strategy, tentatively titled “Mission-To-Gain-Friend-Number-Two”, should be enacted or not. This would require more research – luckily, that happened to be one of Sakura’s favorite things.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

“Okay, tell me _again._ Why are we following this Aburame kid around? You know – we could just ask Mom ‘bout him. Pretty sure his dad was her genin teammate. At least, if that’s Shibi’s kid – which I think it is? Haven’t seen him since I was like five though… One of the puppy litters managed to escape their kennel and took out some bee hives. Kid was like, super pissed about the whole thing. Huh. Maybe he’s like the Uchiha and needs the stick pulled outta his ass?”

Akamaru made the huffing sound which communicated his puppy version of laughter while Sakura glared daggers at Kiba.

“Well, idiot, since he’s an Aburame – and if he is Shibi’s son then he’s their clan heir – it makes perfect sense that he’d be quote ‘super pissed’ if some bee hives were destroyed! That’s like how you would feel if some baby wasps came out of nowhere and stung the crap out of your whole kennel! And then some of the puppies died from poisoning!”

“Correct. That is a semi-appropriate comparison. The bees lost approximately 45% of their colony during that incident. And then 35% of the remaining survivors passed away in the weeks following due to stress, body damage, and loss of food.”

“Dude! Where the hell did you come from? I think I just lost like five years of my life man!” Kiba barely managed to maintain his hold on the tree branch as both he and Sakura violently flinched. Shino continued to peer calmly down at them from his perch one branch above.

“I climbed up the tree. Presumably the same way you achieved this height.”

“Okay… so Shino. These are my friends Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba is, unfortunately, _really_ dumb and has no emotional depth. He _apologizes_ for his insensitive words.” Sakura was in the middle of receiving lessons on diplomacy and peace-keeping missions from her dad… she could at least try to negotiate a middle-ground, right?

“Ow! Damn woman! You do not have to elbow me! Stop it! Ow! Fine! I’m sorry I was an ass Shino! I would be totally upset if that happened to the dogs.”

“I shall accept this apology. Forced though it is.”

“Great! Do you wanna get tempura with us?” Sakura was totally getting the hang of this diplomacy thing… Well if ‘violent beatings’ and ‘attempting to light someone on fire with your eyes’ counted as solid negotiation tactics anyways.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

Turns out Mission-To-Gain-Friend-Number-Two was a total success even if Kiba was an unwilling accomplice.

And it probably didn’t hurt to have the power of tempura on her side. Shannaro!


	2. For Fox Sake!

Naruto had no idea what was happening. He’d just been minding his business, casually hanging around the park with Shiba, clearly not planning any pranks, thank you very much, when he’d been knocked face first onto the ground.

Shiba, of course, was no use at all. He was huffing out his hyena-like laugh and pretending he was incapable of helping Naruto. See if Naruto ever slipped that traitor scraps of his dinner again!

“Sorry ‘bout that! We were, uh, just runn- I mean walking! Yeah! We were just _casually_ walkin’ and _accidentally_ ran you over. Uh, sorry. And uh, you did **not** see us, okay?” The brunette wrecking-ball of a boy yelled out over his shoulder before scooping up a sprawled out white puppy and sprinting towards the trees on the other side of the park.

“What the heck was that? And you! What kind of packmate are you? Where were you? I’m telling Pakkun, you big stupid head!”

“Ah come on Naruto. That’s not very nice. I mean, I didn’t run you over now did I? I thought we were gonna go get some spray paint and teach that fruit vendor a lesson eh? We can’t do that if you tell Pakkun, now can you?”

Naruto petulantly kicked at the dirt and pondered Shiba’s words… Dang it! The stupid dog was totally right! Shisui better not catch wind of this or he’s going to ramp up his whole ‘teach Kakashi’s kid how to be a better ninja’ lessons again. Naruto was still sore from the last time that psychopath had babysat him. He’d much rather be left with just the ninken pack, so he supposed Pakkun would not be receiving any words on Shiba’s traitorous behavior… Still gonna withhold the dinnertime snacks though. Teach Shiba to not be such a punk! 

“Hey kid. You happen to see an Inuzuka brat and a puppy run through here?”

Naruto glanced up, and up, and up. Wow, this man was pretty tall.

“Uh, what’s an Inuzuka?”

Shiba snorted. Did this pup listen to any of their lessons? Ever?

The man just sighed and continued looking around the field. Naruto began cataloging his appearance (believe it or not he did pay attention to the ninken’s lessons… some of the time anyways). The man was broad-shouldered, wearing all black and dark grey clothes, with a black trench coat and huge black combat boots (Naruto could practically hear Shisui crowing the words ‘shit kickers’ in his head, but after having both Kashi-nii and Tenzou assign him additional training exercises, he knew better than to say those words aloud… or at least around any ninjas who may or may not know Kashi-nii). And this man had a Konoha hitai-ate on a bandana wrapped around his head. He also had some wicked facial scars. Huh. Wonder how that had happened… Naruto was _almost_ worried for the Inuzuka kid, except for the whole being tackled and left behind thing. Clearly the kid had done something worth a chase, and Naruto always liked getting in on that kind of action. The ‘Inuzuka’ (what a dumb name) deserved whatever this man dished out for ditching Naruto like that. What a jerk. 

“Well, if you do see him, you let him know Morino is looking for him, ya hear? And tell Hatake I said hi and to keep a better watch over his shoulder.” And with a truly wicked looking smirk, the man was gone. 

“That was awesome! Oh man, I need to learn how to disappear like that! He didn’t even leave any leaves or anything Shiba!” 

Shiba pictured the Boss’ face upon hearing the pup’s latest training request. His hyena-laugh erupted again. Boss deserved this. Shiba was still holding a grudge from being around during the pup’s potty-training days… Those weeks of his life had been time spent in hell and he could never get those hours back. Boss deserved _lots_ of this. Naruto’s chakra control was absolute shit and Shiba loved to watch Boss crumple in on himself further with every lesson.

Maybe Shiba should suggest some nice fat juicy steaks as a bartering chip to helping explain chakra to Naruto… again… for the fiftieth time. Then again… best not. It really is the responsibility of a parent to teach their children such things, and who was Shiba to get in the way of that?

 

~~~~~~~~~~ 

Sakura had seen the blonde boy in class and knew his name was Uzumaki Naruto. It was kind of hard to miss seeing as he had a tendency to stand on his desk and yell it out at least once a week.

Usually this was in response to some other kid attempting to pick on him. But it seemed like Naruto was an expert at dealing with bullying, and the words seemed to slide right off. He just picked himself up and yelled about how he was ‘gonna be Hokage someday’ and something about a ‘Kashi-nii kicking ass’.

Sakura was still trying to figure out who exactly this ‘Kashi-nii’ was. So far, she had only seen Naruto in class or at lunch and had yet to see him getting picked up or dropped off. She was trying to get better at espionage and surveillance but did have a _tiny_ tendency to get distracted by Akamaru’s _super_ cute face and since she walked to and from school with Kiba, these times tended to overlap with the opportunity to see said ‘Kashi-nii’.

Plus, Sakura had yet to devolve to outright stalking… She was still trying to figure out exactly where the ‘this is surveillance and good’ and ‘this is stalking and bad’ line actually lay, but since her parents hadn’t been called down to the office (that she knew of) – she’d probably been pulling it off successfully so far.

But this Naruto was interesting. Even though Sakura had Kiba to walk with, and Shino in her classroom and at lunch (Kiba was a hit and miss for that period, on one hand he loved food but on the other he also loved not being anywhere near school grounds), she still had her share of bullies. And since they were all girls, they tended to target Sakura whenever the boys weren’t around. Namely the bathroom and the locker room. 

Sakura was getting really tired of trapping her gym bag. She’d forgotten to dismantle one of the stink bombs once and had gotten hit right in the face. Kiba still burst into laughter whenever he even glimpsed her bag.

So, Sakura figured this Naruto would be the _perfect_ solution. He could teach her how to withstand bullies! Or at least ignore them… Or maybe he’d just teach her how to yell really loudly, but since the girls all seemed to hate that too, it might also be a worthwhile skill.

Not sure if yelling out ‘I’m going to be the greatest ANBU assassin ever’ had quite the same ring as the Hokage claim, but it was worth a shot. (Even if mom’s teammate Genma snickered anytime Sakura brought it up… She gets it. She has _pink_ hair. It’s not that funny Genma, seriously. And he’s supposed to be an adult… What a joke.)

But back to the mission! This time Sakura was leaving Kiba out of it. She’d lucked out on the Shino issue even with Kiba’s blatant rudeness but was not going to take the risk this time. That kid could not keep his mouth shut even if his life was on the line. Sakura would have to make sure to tell mom to spend extra time teaching him about Torture & Interrogation techniques before their physical lesson came up. Sakura would drag Kiba kicking and screaming to graduation if she had to. No one was leaving a friend behind on her watch.

Sakura’s plan to catch Naruto was rather simple… She’d brought homemade ramen for lunch. Lots of it (so much in fact that her mother was starting to wonder if Sakura was secretly feeding the Akimichi kids instead of just Kiba). Sakura planned on carrying her massive bento towards her and Shino’s normal eating spot and then loudly complaining about how on earth was she possibly going to finish all this delicious ramen by her tiny fragile self.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

Plan ‘Snag-the-kid-with-Ramen’ went perfectly if Sakura did say so herself.

And as a bonus, she can now say she’s seen one boy consume an amount of ramen that would generally feed a family of five in under ten minutes. Where on earth did he put it all? Well, besides the parts that landed all over his face.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

“Uh how do I deal with bullies? What bullies?” Naruto may have looked simply _adorable_ when he was confused, but Sakura was starting to regret her self-made promise to not punch him.

“What do you mean, ‘what bullies’? Are you completely delusional? Those bullies! That kid _literally_ just tried to trip you on your way out the door!”

“Really? I thought he was just dumb.”

“And the dead bunny that was left in your drawer? The one with the note on it that said, ‘eat this, you stupid animal’?”

“ _That’s_ what bullying is? Ah man, no wonder Kashi-nii and Pakkun keep asking me how school’s been.”

Sakura was beginning to think she would be training Naruto much more than he would be training her. After all, she didn’t think one could learn ignorance and naivety… She began some of the deep breathing exercises her dad had suggested to try and contain her rage from building.

“Okay. So. Now that you know what bullying is. How should I prevent the girls from doing it to me? You always seem so good at just ignoring them?”

“I don’t. Not _really_ , anyways. I just prank the crap out of them when they're not looking! Itsuki looked pretty funny with green hair, right, right?” Naruto cackled.

Oh. Sakura began rethinking everything she thought she knew about Naruto. This might just be her greatest find yet. Who needs diplomacy when you have a trap expert on your team?

 

~~~~~~~~~~

Unfortunately, Sakura’s good luck never lasted. Mission ‘Introduce-The-Boys-And-Make-Everyone-Super-Friends’ was looking more and more like a bust every minute.

“What do you mean, I should be friends with this Inuzuka punk?!? He’s stupid and a jerk!”

“Now Naruto, remember what we talked about? Everyone has their weak points, right? Well, Kiba’s happens to be between his ears. That and chili powder – he hates it getting near his nose.”

“You’re a traitor Haruno! I’ll remember this! And I’m telling Hana not to paint your nails next time you’re over, you jerk!”

Sakura calmly stepped away from the two now brawling boys. How was she supposed to know that Naruto held a grudge for Kiba tackling him a few weeks back? Besides, good diplomacy was knowing when and where to pick your battles. And she’d much rather deal with just Kiba’s nail painting threats than whatever twisted prank Naruto was plotting.

Well… at least she still had Shino to talk to. He was much too rational to wrestle… Hopefully anyways.

Maybe she could convince him to go to the flower fields with her. She still needed to practice her flower arrangements (that Ino girl’s smugness on her perfect bouquets was really starting to piss Sakura off), and Shino liked looking at the bugs there.

And if Kiba was lucky, Sakura might even point Hana his way. She was learning medical skills after all.


	3. Stage Three: Le Chat Noir

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shikamaru is the equivalent of a grouchy cat.
> 
> He just wants to sunbathe in peace and quiet.
> 
> Why can't girls just leave him alone?

So far, all of the clan books Sakura had studied in the archives had proved accurate. The Inuzuka clan was loud, great for tracking, had lots of ninken, and were generally great to have on your side in a fight. The Aburame were bug users, liked plants, and should not be messed with unless you wanted to be looking over your shoulder for the rest of your life in fear of their retribution. That and girls Sakura’s age were terrified of them – which was a _total_ bonus in Sakura’s eyes (seriously, she almost wanted to marry into the clan if that would just rub some of their awesome-ness onto her). Unfortunately, she’d yet to see the fuinjutsu mastery that the Uzumaki clan was famous for – but her experience with Naruto did prove that they were apparently very ‘full of longevity’ as that kid didn’t let anything get him down and she’d yet to see him lose a fight due to endurance issues (and seriously – what was that about? He didn’t get tired. **Ever**. Why couldn’t Sakura have super magical stamina genes instead of just inheriting pink hair?).

But Sakura’s research had also provided evidence that the Nara clan was supposedly full of geniuses and strategic masterminds. That did not look likely at all. She was trying her hardest to believe in the factual accounts she’d read, but _really_? This Shikamaru kid was so far proving to be a total bust.

He seemed to be barely conscious in class, managed to eke out only the most minimal of wins in sparring (if he even bothered to _try_ ), and spent target practice time throwing his kunai and shuriken into various animal shapes on the boards (which now that Sakura thought about it, was actually ingenious as she’d never seen Mizuki-sensei turn red that fast, so maybe that did count as a strategy?).

However, Sakura was not raised to be a quitter. That and her mother had moved onto strategy lessons and so far, Sakura had not managed to win a single shogi match against her and had yet to develop a battle plan that didn’t end up with her mom pointing out at least sixteen different openings that Sakura had left that ended up killing off half her squadron (it was beginning to seriously piss her off – why couldn’t her mom just make cupcakes and pin her bloody ninja drawings on the fridge like every other mom?).

Thus, Sakura found herself hunting down her generation’s version of the “mastermind” Nara. She figured she could at least bait him into a shogi game and hopefully pick up some tips regarding strategy. In her best calculated plans, she even figured she had at least a 64% chance that he might take pity on her and help her reformat her battle strategies to be just a _little_ less of a complete disaster. Well, if he turned out to be anything like the Nara stereotype instead of the lackluster example he’d been showcasing thus far.

Turns out, finding Shikamaru was rather difficult. Considering he seemed to move at the speed of a sloth during class time, he disappeared remarkably quickly at the end of the school day. Sakura was already at her wit’s end and she’d just started this mission. Why couldn’t she just score all of her ~~missions~~ _friends_ (she did understand the difference… mostly…) with ramen? Maybe she should have followed the Choji Akimichi boy around instead… At least she knew he could usually be found at the barbecue place near the market and Shikamaru appeared to be attached to Choji at the hip roughly a third of the time.

Sakura had wandered around most of Konoha by now and was about to give up the search when she heard a muttered curse come from the grassy knoll to her right.

“Troublesome woman.”

It appeared that Sakura had just found her prey. And he was about to learn just how ‘troublesome’ some females could be. Sakura began popping her knuckles and tightening her fingerless gloves. Her parents had raised her to respect _both_ genders and she had made it her mission in life to encourage others to do the same. Mostly Kiba and Naruto. And mostly by using her fists. It seemed to be working thus far… Akamaru had even begun ratting Kiba out for any sexist comments and seemed to greatly enjoy watching said beat downs occur.

And that was why Akamaru was still holding the spot of “Sakura’s Best Friend For Life”.

“Oh Shikamaru! What a _wonderful_ coincidence to stumble onto you. I was hoping to challenge you to a shoji match, but now I kind of want to practice some taijutsu first.”

Shikamaru cracked one eye open, glanced her way, and then shut it again.

“Maybe later.”

Sakura’s right eye was beginning to develop a twitch.

“Really? But I thought you loved shoji?”

“Mmhmm. But only real challengers.”

Oh. That was **it**. Sakura was going to beat the absolute **crap** out of this Nara and it was going to feel **fantastic**. Insufferable ass. She stomped over to him and was getting ready to kick him when his eye creaked open again.

“You’re blocking the sun.”

“What?!?”

“And now you’re screeching. Troublesome.”

“What the hell is your problem?”

“Really? I was just lying here in the nice spot of sun and you popped up out of nowhere.”

Sakura’s eye twitch was beginning to get extremely frustrating.

“I just wanted a shoji match.”

“Mmm. Incorrect. You wanted to use me for strategic planning and just hoped I’d be gullible enough to buy into a shoji match.”

Sakura was beginning to believe that the archive documents were right. Nara’s were intelligent. The only thing they’d missed was that they were also blunt to the point of rudeness. And maybe he wasn’t the only one being rude… Damn it.

“Also… you’re still blocking my sun.”

Sakura let out an irritated seething hiss and stomped back to the path.

“Next time – ask me politely.”

Oh, he wanted polite did he? Sakura was going to be **the** politest ninja he’d ever seen.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sakura dropped the homemade bento onto the table in front of Choji and Shikamaru.

“I come bearing tidings of peace. I’ll share with you this bento, give you a pass on your first misogynistic comment yesterday, and offer you this first edition copy of Uchiha Madara’s _Art of War_. To borrow only of course. I’ll need that back in a couple of weeks. It’s one of my favorites.”

Shikamaru accepted and just hoped he wouldn’t come to regret this. After all, any girl who actually enjoyed reading Madara’s epic tome was probably not someone he wanted to cross. But it looks like he won the bet with his mother. He now had a total of _two_ friends. And she thought he was incapable of being polite and friendly. How troublesome.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I secretly enjoy picturing Madara as this ridiculously intense writer-type who just wanted to share his knowledge on military history and the philosophy of war.
> 
> Maybe he had a hard time finding a publisher and that's why he was so pissed all the time....


	4. Like Sitting Ducks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> To be honest, Sakura had no idea how this had happened. She didn't even like Sasuke.

To be fair, Sakura had never even wanted to befriend Sasuke. She thought he was a bit of a stuck-up prick and had stupid hair. All he did was distract Sakura’s rival Ino. And Sakura just wanted Ino to notice her – which was _impossible_ with that duck-butt Sasuke around sucking up all of Ino’s attention.

And yes, Sakura did realize she might be mildly overreacting to the entire situation… But still, did she really have to be _friends_ with _him_?

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Sakura blamed Naruto for this one. To be fair, generally speaking, Naruto was to blame for approximately 65% of everything that went sideways in Sakura’s life. But in this particular case, he was 100% to blame. Sakura didn’t even realize Sasuke had a personality besides being ridiculously good at sparring and target practice, but according to Naruto he was a total genius.

“Sasuke-bastard is soooo smart! He came over the other night to share this jutsu he created – get this, it let me blow up an entire tree! Isn’t that so awesome? He’s the best! Totally kick ass!”

Sakura grit her teeth and continued to push the rice around on her lunch tray. She was not jealous. And no, she was **not** secretly imagining punching Naruto in the face just now. Of course not. That would be the very opposite of the team-building concept which her mother Mebuki had been trying to encourage lately.

She just wanted him to shut up about Sasuke. That’s all. Perfectly reasonable really.

“Why would such a beautiful creature like Sasuke-kun take the time to hang out with _you_?”

And speak of the other devil. Now Ino was here. Sakura’s enamel was in danger of cracking. She’d probably need to invest in a mouth guard soon or her dentist bills would skyrocket and her dad Kizashi was always trying to emphasize the importance of good hygiene and health insurance.

“Ino Pig. What a delight. How about you **never** talk to my friend in that tone of voice again, mm?” Sakura may have wanted Naruto to shut the hell up about Sasuke, but that doesn’t give her rival the right to talk down to him.

“Forehead Girl. Been rolling around in the mud again I see.”

“Ah you know me. Busy training and getting stronger. Unlike certain _little_ girls who are too busy fluttering their eyelashes at ducks and arranging flowers… Like that’s _such_ an important life skill.” Sakura’s insults had been getting exponentially better since wrangling Shikamaru into her friend group. Turns out he really was a good example of a Nara… whenever he was actually awake anyways. Currently he was passed out face down on the table and Choji was busy piling books on top of him. Lazy ass.

“How dare you! The art and language of flowers has a very detailed and useful history! And you’d know that if you ever bothered to pay attention in class! Does that _massive_ forehead even have a brain behind it?”

Sakura cracked her knuckles.

“Excuse me! Hey Naruto! Do you have a second? I just finished this seal and I think if you combined your chakra with mine at **this** precise moment, we could create something _phenomenal_.” Sasuke practically had stars in his eyes. That combined with Ino’s unfortunate gaping jaw and off-balance appearance (Sasuke had just shoved her out of the way), made something break in Sakura.

“Oh my god. You are such a nerd Uchiha!” Sakura barely managed to squeeze the words out in between her hysterical giggles. “I thought Naruto was just exaggerating but this is priceless!”

Lunch that day ended with Sakura and Ino getting into a brawl, Shikamaru continuing to sleep under Choji’s stack of books, and Sasuke and Naruto plotting the best way to blow something up again.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

Kakashi had been reading the latest volume of Icha Icha Tactics when the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. He raised his head up and squinted his one visible eye while staring in the direction he knew the academy lay.

Funny. That felt exactly like the other day when Naruto had that weird Uchiha kid that was somehow related to Itachi over to the house… And then they’d ended up lighting Pakkun’s favorite watering tree on fire. Nah… Naruto was safe at the academy. He couldn’t possibly be getting into any trouble there… Right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am leaning heavily on the head-canon created by blackkat's fic "Rampant Nerdery": https://archiveofourown.org/works/10347030
> 
> It's hysterical and I highly recommend checking it out.
> 
> Basically, that's where I got the idea for Sasuke to be a nerd and steal Naruto away for jutsu experimentation.
> 
> And Naruto just has a teeny-tiny crush on the kid for being so adorable and kick-ass.


End file.
